The main content of this document is the dictation of Eric Hothka, who may have been the last surviving member of Grumman LaPlayar's adventure team. The following is recorded by Frick Sierra Leone www.biquge.info, a third-level scribe at the Gates of the North's Gate, and witnessed by the adventurer Dean Franke.

It is well known to those of our time that the Grumman Laprar expedition has made a total of seven expeditions to the North, with the aim of targeting the mysterious areas of the Northland that no one has ever explored in depth. They had brought back a lot of valuable information from the lands of the north until they were killed there.

Less than four months after their last adventure from the Gate of the North, newspapers throughout the empire and around the world published the party's tragic end. Communication between the guilds and them was cut off for unknown reasons, and the supply was not carried out as planned.

Until months later, those who went to investigate their whereabouts were able to locate the bodies of a few members of the expedition in the vicinity of the last point of contact. It was easy to find in the mainstream newspapers of the time how the adventure party had suffered a natural disaster and the destruction of the ferocious monsters, and the adventurers' corpses had been exposed to the cold winds of the Northlands and had long been in tatters, and their identities could only be proved by a few scattered relics.

The chronicle released by the guild also reveals two details: the first is that they have found the location of what is supposed to be the last camp of the expedition party, where many items are still left, but none of the adventurers are left there, and the second is the disappearance of many people, including Grumman Laprar, who are the main and most capable members of the expedition, and the search and rescue team has not found any trace of them.

According to official intelligence, almost everyone believes that no one made it back alive in this cursed adventure, and even the subsequent search and rescue team killed several people in the Northlands. However, for some reason, we found Eric Hothka, who was probably dying soon, in the slums of the Gate of the North.

We tried to get him as much as we could about the adventure, and from these conversations we can surmise that only a few people had returned alive from the North, but that they had either gone mad or died suddenly shortly after. Eric Hothka himself called the adventure "the biggest mistake of all", which not only left his body almost rotten, but also robbed him of the little hope left in his life.

The following is entirely based on the dictation of Eric Hoska, but given the subjective will and mental state of the adventurer, there may be errors or omissions in the content, so this record is only used as a reference material, and the authenticity is questionable.

The following starts the body of the record:

As you said, I'm Eric Hoska, a member of Grumman LaPlayar's adventure team, but now a piece of rotting waste. You may remember what our party accomplished, but all I can say is that it was just some nightmare.

You may be skeptical of what I have described, but if you want to ask for proof, then you will have to set foot on your own mountainous wasteland at the far end of the north, into the inaccessible hinterland, and look with your own eyes at the ancient ruins that have been abandoned for a long time, and only cursed remains remain.

As for me, I mean, we - the return actually came a month before the news of the death of the expedition party was widely circulated in society, and of course it did not cause any sensation at the time. And we also take advantage of this month's gap to escape the territory of the Empire from becoming the center of the storm.

In fact, I am very glad that the vast majority of those of us who were able to escape from that cursed place have lost the ability to speak. And if they get to the forefront of intelligence exchange, they are likely to be the target of ridicule like some people.

Yes, I see what you mean, you want to say that my consciousness has been badly affected by that tragic experience, so I can't judge their likes and dislikes?

Unbeknownst to you, the newspapers that ran a month or more later talked about the news of the Adventure Party, and they didn't care about what happened to the adventurers just to get attention. Even the search and rescue teams that were sent later, they really just wanted to find our last legacy.

The guilds and the so-called elites show little sympathy, and they outwardly mourn that we will never return to civilization, but behind the scenes they think about how to use this information to extract the last benefits, especially those who direct the committee, who also want to use the information we investigate as a bargaining weight, and only a simple "we are sorry" to the bereaved.

Okay, okay...... These are my own complaints, no matter who sees my body, I will only look at me with disgust, and I don't want my family to see me like this. It's better to be a victim of the feeling of being a "pioneer of the North" than to be a loser who flees back to civilization in embarrassment.

Actually, you're right, I don't care where the information from the previous investigation goes, because even if someone follows that information to find the cursed ruins, the big deal is that it will only repeat what happened to us, and maybe it will become a living teaching material for future generations.

But one thing I have to say before I tell you about what happened is that you may have known about the magazines and newspapers before you found me, but we didn't encounter natural disasters or any feared monsters, but we just stepped into places we shouldn't have because of our greed.

You should know that the barbarians, after several adventures in the past, have also come to know some of the peoples who live in the Northlands, some of whom are still in the primitive tribal stage, and some of whom have established their own city-states - and we have reported this to the Empire a long time ago.

Groups such as the "Snow Elves" or "Cavemen" actually exist, and they also have a considerable level of civilization. They are mostly friendly and our adventures have been successful many times with their help.

In fact, we've had several past adventures to set foot on that damn ruin, but the news we've gathered isn't enough to get us on our way there. But at that time, we didn't know what was going on, and we didn't give up no matter what obstacles we faced.

In fact, before we started our adventure, while gathering intelligence, some of the barbarians living in the Northland had already warned us that the ruins had been cursed a long time ago. It was the wreckage of a great civilization thousands of years ago, and now only the dead linger in the ruins.

Obviously, the barbarians living in the Northland all knew where the ruins were in the Northlands, but the various races seemed to have chosen to avoid the truth. Even if we tried every means to get information, they would only repeat how dangerous it was and how close it was.

But we managed to get our hands on the ruins...... Although the means are more or less somewhat less glamorous. It was a huge ruin that some of the local barbarians called "Palapas", which in their language means "city of decay" or something like that.

It is said that an unspecified disaster befell the city, and any life left in the city was reduced to death overnight. It could be a plague on a massive scale, or it could be some kind of curse...... At the time, we thought that these were thousands of years old, and that there should be no danger now.

Suffice it to say, we didn't understand what that meant, and we just thought we could finally go to the "city of decay" of our dreams and explore the ruins left over from this mythical era. So Grumman Laplar orchestrates a disappearance on his last adventure, ready to explore a city that isn't in the plan - and of course, whatever we find, we're ready to swallow it for ourselves.

It may be too late to say it now, but you're right, all the information you can learn from the newspapers or guild records was deliberately done by Grumman Laprar. From the time of the last contact, the method of disappearance and the preparation of the search team were ready.

First of all, it was the location of the last camp of the adventure party, and we left with only the necessary things, so there were many items left there that looked like proof of our whereabouts. In fact, those are deliberately corrected materials, and the information in them also carries a lot of forgeries.

The second is to deal with the untrustworthy members of the adventure party, a large part of whom are actually infiltrating the group and spying on us. And after killing those people, leaving behind the appearance of them being attacked by dangerous monsters and barbarians in the Northland, and enough information, it is enough to fool the eyes of the investigation team.

After everything was taken care of, we did not return to the camp that was used as bait, but went to another pre-prepared hiding spot. We slept late that night and didn't embark on a real adventure until the sun had reached the middle of the lead-filled sky.

I'm afraid I'll never forget that day—we've been on an adventure in the Northlands for a long time, but never a day when the fog was so thick. If it weren't for the special way of identifying the way, we would have been killed before we even set foot on that cursed ruin...... And that's probably the best ending.

It was by no means an enjoyable journey, as the party spent the day battling the terrible weather and complex road conditions. Finally, as the sun was about to set that afternoon, we finally found ourselves on an ancient and long-abandoned path.